WOW!! What an incredible day! I was very nervous coming in to this meet because I was using a new bench shirt and opening much heavier than I usually do. I knew this was going to risky and either be really good or really bad. It turned out to be really good!!
I had originally planned to open with 601 but decided last night to open with 606. When the lifters were posted for my flight, there were a couple of other guys opening with 606 too, so we decided to bump my opener to 611 (I had a training partner and good friend, James Townsend, helping call my numbers). Well, I absolutely smoked 611! After hitting my opener, I went back to sit down in the warm-up room. James called my second attempt, which I didn’t know what it was until I was on the platform. 639!! I was like…what! Oh well, it’s on the bar. Let’s see what I can do with it. GOOD LIFT!!! I was fired up after that one! I didn’t know anything about what was going on with everybody else at this point. Anyway, the same thing happened on my third attempt. I had no idea what it was until the last minute. 650 was the weight! I gave it a good effort, but missed the lift.
At this point, I knew 639 had to be a good placing. Come to find out, after my 650 miss there was only one guy left that could beat me. It was Masters World Record Holder, Horace Lane. He had opened with 700 but missed it on his first two tries. If he missed it again on his third I would win 1st place. He missed and I was in 1st place!! I ended up winning 1st place in the Masters AND Open Division! Unbelievable!
Winning this meet qualifies me for the IPF World Bench Press Championships to be held in Prague, Czech Republic in June of 2008. Going to Masters Bench Worlds is one thing, but going to the Open Bench Worlds in a whole new level. I am just at a loss at how God is blessing my lifting in such an incredible way. God is good all the time, all the time God is good!
Byron Nichols, 2007 USAPL Bench Press National Champion…that has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
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